Brewer, John; Lockhart, Bill H. and Rodgers, Paula. 'Crime in Ireland since the Second World War'. - Dublin: Journal of the Statistical and Social Inquiry Society of Ireland,Vol. XXVII Pt III, 1995/1996, pp135-175

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00814776

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JEL

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Y

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http://hdl.handle.net/2262/2144

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Read before the Society, 15 February 1996

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Over two decades of terrorism have given Northern Ireland the image of being a
violent, crime-torn country. Belfast is associated in imagery with the bomb and the
bullet, with Beirut and Bosnia and all other alliterations for social breakdown and
dislocation. People with greater acquaintance of Northern Ireland, however, have
noted its relative peacefulness. In reference to such, people comment on its low
crime rate. In these ways, crime levels are held up as testimony against images of a
buffeted, battle-weary Northern Irish populace. Ordinary crime levels in Northern
Ireland throw up deep issues for empirical investigation and theoretical
consideration. Moreover, Northern Ireland sits at the fulcrum of Great Britain and
the Irish Republic and a study of ordinary crime there permits a comparative
framework to cover crime trends elsewhere in the British Isles, particularly the Irish
Republic, about which so little is known compared to the wealth of material on crime
in Great Britain.